Just an fyi,
I live in Houston, in fact on of my favorite bars here is where your relations were housed, the train station they likely came to is now MinuteMaid Park where the Astros play. Keep it up thank you
Capt
I just want to say that I look forward to your updates, and I read them to my family. Don’t let our collective silence make you think that this thread isn’t awesome. 
Saturday, January 3, 1863
Today, in New Orleans, the steamer Chi-Kiang is leaving for Galveston. On board are Companies A, B, and F, ready to join Companies D, G, and I. They are unaware that the city is lost.
Lieutenant Colonel Stedman is carrying the missing orders from General Banks to Colonel Burrell that Colonel Holabird had been unable to find before the three companies left for Galveston last month. The orders read as follows:
The Chi-Kiang was delayed several times in getting underway, and by noon today the reason became known: Galveston was lost to the enemy, and along with it the three companies and the regimental colors. This naturally caused quite a stir on board, as the men entertained wild ideas of rushing to Galveston to retake what was lost. But in the end, their orders were to return to camp at “Camp Mansfield,” Carrollton, Louisiana.
Back in Houston, Private Davis and his comrades are housed in a cotton press by Buffalo Bayou. They are being treated well, but the Confederate soldiers guarding them seem to lack discipline. The guards also seem convinced that the prisoners are up to no good. Most days the prisoners are allowed furloughs into the city, in groups of four, under armed guard. They are also frequently visited by their officers, who are quartered nearby at Travis & Congress streets. For now, the food is adequate. Their rations are the same as those issued to Confederate soldiers, and consist of corn meal, rice, sugar, beef, corn coffee, and salt. There is a baker in the city who hails from Roxbury, Massachusetts, and he has been visiting the troops and taking flour in exchange for bread. Most of the men are in good shape, but a few suffer from diarrhea or other ailments.
For the fans of this thread, the NYT Opinionator blog has been running a series called “Disunion” you might like. Several times a week, they run an account of events that took place 150 years before.
Here is their piece on Galveston.
Thanks for the link, jasg. That’s a good summary of the battle, and covers it from a different perspective than my sources, most of which center on the regiment. One of the comments on that story mentions the story of Albert and Edward Lea. Commander Edward Lea was on the Harriet Lane. His father, Albert Lea, fought in the same battle on the Confederate side. Upon learning his son was among the enemy wounded, the elder Lea came to his son’s ship, and the two exchanged some words before Edward Lea succumbed to his wounds.
Today, the Charles Osgood finally arrived from Brooklyn, delivering Companies E and K to Carrollton to join Companies A, B, and F. Also newly arrived are two who escaped the rout in Galveston: Quartermaster Burrell and Adjutant Davis, who had the good fortune to be on ships in Galveston harbor rather than on the wharf when the action began.
Great thread and thanks for posting. My great great grandfather was a private in Co I. Horace Eaton. I have his union photo and a few of his papers. Never knew where he served. Really great. Thanks.
Beaton– Thank you for posting, and welcome to the SDMB! I hope you’ll stick around, as it’s one of the best communities on the Internet.
I’m happy to see another person with a connection to the battle. Did you find this thread by Googling your ancestor’s name? When I listed the names of all the soldiers on the wharf in an earlier post, I thought that might be useful for anyone out there trying to find information on the troops.
I don’t think Horace Eaton came from the town of Melrose. But he is mentioned once in one of my sources. In discussing casualties: “Company I, from its sheltered position, had no casualties. Private Eaton had his bayonet cut in halves, another man received a ball in his hat, and Private Paget had a ball cut his haversack straps.”
This week, things in Houston are settling into a routine. The men are keeping busy with card-playing, talking, singing, and making trinkets out of bones left over from meals. These last items are popular among the locals and have been a source of cash (added to the supplies of Confederate currency “liberated” from Galveston while on patrol.)
The Confederate guards have been the same as ever, but have taken to asking questions about one Andrew Romain, whom they seem very interested in finding. The men play dumb; there is no Andrew Romain on the rolls of the regiment.
Hi Malden. Thanks again. Still thinking about this thread. Really great. I did find the thread searching google with my relatives name. Hadn’t done it for a long time. Looks like good timing to catch your thread. We had been in central NH visiting my sister and I got thinking about relatives that had settled there. My Eaton ancestors settled originally in Reading and successive generations moved to Hampstead NH, then Fryeburg, ME then Rumford ME and then to the Gilmanton NH area where many of the early settlers of Rumford were from. Horace was born in Rumford and moved to South Boston in his 20s. I assume looking for work and to get off the farms. He married there and served a stint as a police officer, then served in the military, and eventually returned to Grafton, NH in the 1870s or 80s. I believe he was about 30 when he was mustered into Company I.
PS. His service must have left an impression. Like many others, he gave his son the middle name of Grant. That middle name has been passed down since then and I still have it and my son as well.
OK, back after a little break. There has not been much to break the monotony of life as a POW in Houston.
This week, the POWs learned the fate of Amos and Revaleon, the two African-American civilians stationed on the wharf with the three companies. After the battle, the two young Massachusetts men-- free citizens from birth-- had been sold as slaves to Texan planters for about five hundred dollars each. The Sergeant-major of the 42nd regiment described them as “bright, intelligent lads,” fascinated by Army life, who had secured their jobs against the advice of their parents.
The POWs also continued their elaborate ruse about the identity of a civilian in their midst. At first, only a few men in the three companies knew who Andrew Romain was. But as time went on, the job of concealing him involved more and more of the prisoners.
Andrew Romain was a spy. A New Englander by birth, he had been useful to Union forces in late 1862, before U.S. Naval forces arrived. When the regiment arrived at Kuhn’s Wharf, Romain took refuge there, and his activities became known to the Confederates. After the three companies surrendered, he was nowhere to be found, and the men reckoned he had escaped to one of the ships in the harbor. But he had not done that. Instead, he had hidden, and at an opportune moment on the march through Galveston he had joined the three companies, having scrounged up enough of a Union uniform to blend in. Knowing he would be killed if detected, he marched with the three companies, his immense beard tucked into his shirt and coat.
In Houston, Romain was shaved by a private from Company D. To avoid detection during roll call, he would dodge from one company to another, somehow avoiding the notice of the Confederate guards.
On January 22, 1863, the men (not the officers) were ordered to prepare to move out. Two of the captains were permitted to visit the men. Captain Savage expressed his hope that the men would endure the travel ahead and return home safely. Captain Sherive exhorted them to “give them Hell” if they were ever exchanged and took up arms again.
Leaving their quarters for the last time, the prisoners were to be lined up by company and counted. This posed great danger for Andrew Romain; he stayed behind in the building to partake in a desperate ruse. Company G emerged from the building first. Sergeant Hackett asked to return to the building to pick up an item he had left behind. He went inside, returning a moment later with Romain, yelling at him for leaving the ranks and returning to the building without permission. A Confederate Lieutenant approached Romain, who stood before him, smoking a pipe and casually carrying a broom over his shoulder. The lieutenant asked Romain his name, and Romain replied with a name that Sgt. Hackett had suggested earlier. He said that Sgt. Goodrich (of the 42nd regiment) had sent him back for a broom because the railroad cars were covered in coal dust. The lieutenant called for Sgt. Goodrich and asked who he had sent back to the quarters. Goodrich gave the same name Romain had used. Todd found the name on the rolls of Company G and ordered Romain to “get out of here.”
And so, Romain, and Companies D, G, and I, boarded rail cars and headed for Beaumont, Texas. Romain left behind a wife and child who probably thought Romain had been killed.
Today the POWs arrived in Beaumont, Texas after an unpleasant overnight train ride of 83 miles. It rained all night on the open transport cars, and the men slid on the wet coal dust that covered the floors. Few men got any sleep at all. The locomotive could not pull all of the train cars at once, so it carried half of the load as far as the next open siding, left the cars there, and backtracked to pick up the rest. This swapping of cars was repeated over and over again until they arrived in Beaumont around 4 p.m.
Tonight the men are housed in a set of abandoned shacks along Brake’s Bayou. Another view in this 1850 map, which is rotated so that north is to the right. (I’m not sure where exactly along the bayou they would have been… could have been further outside of town.) Word is spreading that their next move, when it comes, will be a march from Beaumont to Alexandria, Louisiana, a distance of about 150 miles.
Curiously, the prisoners are eating quite well during their stay in Beaumont. Near the shacks where they are quartered, there is an old blacksmith shop with a raised floor. The crawlspace under this floor is a popular place for pigs to congregate, taking shelter from the elements. It is a rather simple matter for the men to capture a pig by lowering a lasso through a trapdoor in the floor. Where the pigs came from is not certain, but the men decide that a few of the animals will not be missed, and the guards permit the theft. This, and other forage, constitute a filling, if not complete, diet. There are also mules wandering about in the area around the camp, and some of the men amuse themselves by riding them.
But all is not well in camp. A few men have gotten sick beyond the usual diarrhea and common cold. The worst of the cases is nineteen-year-old Private David Chapin, Company I, who is feverish and at times delirious. There is a surgeon among the prisoners, but he has no supplies, nor do the Confederate guards.
The men continue to await orders to begin their march back to the Union lines.
It seems that the men have been spared at least part of their march to Louisiana. The steamer Red Buck arrived at the POW camp today, and the prisoners were ordered to load their belongings and board the ship. At 1:00 p.m. the ship proceeded down the Neches River, arriving at Sabine Lake by the end of the day. The lake, really more of an estuary, lies on the border of Texas and Louisiana, and is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by a short channel. In addition to the Neches river, the lake receives flow from the Sabine river, which forms the southern part of the boundary between the two states. The men spent the evening of January 29 on the ship, somewhere around the mouth of the Neches.
Today the Roe Buck carried the POWs up the Sabine River. Starting at dawn, the ship paused for a short time at Novell’s Bluff, then proceeded to Morgan’s Bluff. [I am unable to locate the former, but the USGS topo map for the area shows a Morgan Bluff at [this location](Google Maps) in what is now the Sabine Island Wildlife Management Area, only about 20 miles upstream from Sabine Lake.] The men spent the night here.
On Saturday morning, the Roe Buck took on a load of wood and continued to navigate up the narrow, crooked Sabine River. Those on deck had to keep watch for tree limbs stretching out over the water, which could knock a man down–or overboard-- without warning. They spent Saturday night at a place called Possum Bluff, and on Sunday they continued upriver.
Private Chapin remains very ill and is in a state of delirium. Another man, Private Henry C. Sellea, has fallen ill with fever as well.
Not surprisingly, there are few options available for prisoners afflicted with severe illnesses. Dr. Penroes is attending to the medical needs of the prisoners, particularly Privates Chapin and Sellea, and has been able to obtain a small supply of medicine.
But for Private Chapin, help has arrived too late. Late in the evening on February 2nd, while the transport ship was tied up at Starks Landing, Texas, Chapin died. After breakfast on the morning of the 3rd, a detail of several prisoners dug a grave in the woods among some cypress and pine trees. The men prepared a roughly-made coffin from whatever wood they could obtain. A short memorial service was held, and the Confederate guards fired three volleys in salute. The grave was marked with a board bearing Chapin’s name, age, company, and regiment.
At four o’clock this afternoon, the journey upriver came to an end. The Roe Buck arrived at a place called Burr’s Ferry, and the men were ordered to leave the ship and set up camp in a grove of pine trees about half a mile from the river. Everything is wet from several days of rain and cold, and more men are getting sick. Tonight the men are sheltering under rubber and wool blankets.
Burr’s Ferry no longer exists, but the place name appears on USGS topographic maps of the area. The ferry was located approximately here, where an astonishingly rusty state highway bridge now crosses the river.
It turns out that the Burr family, for whom the ferry landing is named, hails from Springfield, Massachusetts. Today, after learning of the three companies of Massachusetts soldiers encamped near the landing, Mrs. Burr came to the aid of Private Sellea, who is now almost completely incapacitated by fever. Somehow, the prisoners were able to arrange for Private Sellea to be left in the care of Mrs. Burr at her farmhouse, where he could be made more comfortable.
Thanks for keeping this going!